Demountable oil burner construction



Feb. 16, 1965 A. J. MADSEN 3,169,571

DEMOUNTABLE on. BURNER CONSTRUCTION Filed June 27, 1963 3 Sheets-She 1 n l x 1 79 M '"h 1 i ll? 49 4; 366/ 35 II/ 47 v 4/ [A I 46 2/3 I v ARNOLD 1. MAosz/v F 3 INVENTOR.

v ATTORNEYS 1955 A. J. MADSEN DEMOUNTABLE on. BURNER consmucnon 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 27, 1963 till:

.I r illllullllllllil ARNOLD d. fifiZ i-lv x BY WMK ATTORNEYS Feb. 16, 1965 A. J. MADSEN 3,169,571

DEMOUNTABLE OIL BURNER cous'raucuon A/QNOLD J MADSEN AT ToR/vEYs United States Patent 3,169,571 DEMOUNTABLE OHJ BURNER CONSTRUCTION Arnold J. Madsen, Minneapolis, Minn, assignor to Madsen Service Incorporated, Minneapolis, Minn, a corporation of Minnesota Filed lune 27, 1963, Ser. No. 291,049 1 Claim. (Cl. 158-76) This invention relates to improvements in gun-type oil burners and, more particularly, to an improved system for mounting and demounting the burner assembly from association with a furnace combustion chamber.

Heretofore, gun-type oil burners have been so connected with the furnace with which they are to be employed as to practically make rapid mounting and demounting of such oil burners impossible. Thus, commonly the draft tube is integrally connected between the blower and the combustion chamber. All necessary electrical wiring is connected directly to the burner itself from the master controls. As a result, for even simple maintenance operations, it is necessary to understake a time-consuming and laborious disassembly and later, after maintenance is completed, reassembly. With the present high cost of labor, the need for a system for simply mounting and demounting a gun-type oil burner in fuctional association with the combustion chamber in a furnace becomes apparent.

it is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a means for quickly, simply, and reliably connecting a gun-type oil burner to the combustion cham her in a furnace.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a means for connecting oil burners to combustion chambers wherein the mass of the blower, the fuel pump and the transformer are usefully employed to maintain connection of the oil burner assembly with the combustion chamber in the furnace.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a convenient apparatus for connection of an oil burner to a combustion chamber in which the draft tube is formed in two separate cylindrical portions, which portions connect with one another to form a continuous tube by a species of butt joint.

Other and further objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following specification taken together with the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a horizontal sectional view through a furnace showing a top plan view of an oil burner assembly constructed in accordance with the teachings of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an exploded View showing an outlet housing and plugs connecting therewith used in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the supporting plate and the mounting plate used in the invention;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of a modified embodiment of the invention, some parts thereof broken away;

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of draft tube and supporting means employed in the modified embodiment shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 8-8 of FIG. 7, some parts thereof broken away; and

FIG. 9 is a schematic wiring diagram in simplified block form of the circuitry employed in the oil burners shown and described in this application.

Turning to FIG. 1 there is seen an oil burner assembly,

3,159,571 atented Feb. 16, 1965 herein designated in its entirety by the numeral 10. This burner assembly 16 is of the conventional gun type which is adapted for supplying a mixture of atomized fuel oil and air to a combustion chamber 11 in a furnace 12. The burner assembly 10' employs a blower unit, herein designated in its entirety by the numeral 13. The blower unit 13 includes a fan 14, an electric motor 15 for driving the fan, and a housing 16 for the fan. In the embodiment shown, the fan employed is of the centrifugal type which delivers an air stream tangentially to an orifice 19. The orifice 19 is cylindrically shaped and feeds directly a draft tube, herein designated in its entirety by the numeral 21. The draft tube 21 is adapted to receive the air stream from the blower 13 through orifice 19. The draft tube 21, in effect, permits combustion of fuel oil to take place at a safe distance from the blower 13 and other heat sensitive portions of the burner assembly 10.

Positioned in the forward end of the draft tube 21 is a combustion head, herein designated in its entirety by the numeral 24. The combustion head 24 employs a fuel atomizing nozzle 2.5 which is generally axially positioned in the draft tube 21 at the latters forward end region. Included in the combustion head 24 is means for mixing atomized fuel oil from the nozzle 25 with the air stream from the blower 13. In the embodiment shown, such mixing means includes a sleeve arrangement, herein designated by the numeral 26, which divides the air stream from the blower 13 into two portions called primary air and secondary air, the primary air passing through the region 27 and the secondary air passing through the spiral vane collar 28. it will be observed that the combustion head 24 is equipped with ignition electrodes 29 for igniting the combustible mixture of fuel oil vapor and air. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the design of the combustion head shown is that known to the art as the Shell combustion head which was developed by the Shell Oil Company in their oil burner laboratories. However, any conventional combustion head can be employed in practicing the teachings of the present invention.

In the embodiment shown, the spiral collar 28 is fixed in the forward end portion of the draft tube 21 and the sleeve 26 is adapted to slidably engage the inner walls of the spiral collar 23 so that the sleeve 26 and parts of the combustion head 24 mounted therein are conveniently removed from the draft tube 21. The nozzle 25 is supplied with pressurized fuel oil through a tube 31 which extends through the draft tube 21. Also, the high voltage-low amperage electric power applied to the ignition electrodes 29 is delivered through the lead wires 32. When the sleeve 26 is disengaged from the spiral collar 28, the tube 31 and the lead wires 32 remain attached to the sleeve portion of the combustion head 24. The fuel oil pump assembly 34 and the fan assembly 13 are both operated from electric motor 15. The fuel oil pump assembly 14 is mounted in proximity to the rear end of the draft tube 21. This pump 34 is adapted to take fuel oil under the relatively low line pressures from delivery line 35 and produce relatively high pressure fuel oil delivered to delivery tube 36 for conducting the high pressure oil to the mouth of the tube 31, in the conventional manner. Mounted adjacent the pump 34 and connected in the line 35 is a fuel oil filter 47 which is conventionally used in oil burner assemblies to remove possible entrained solid particles in the fuel oil supply so as to prevent such particles from plugging the nozzle 25 or otherwise disrupting the operation of the oil burner assembly 10 Also mounted in proximity to the rear end of the draft tube 21 is a transformer assembly, herein designated in its entirety by the numeral 38. This transformer 38 is adapted to convert line electric power into high voltagelow amperage output and to deliver this output to a pair of electrodes 39. These electrodes 39 are, in turn, adapted to deliver the transformer output to the lead wires 32 and in turn to ignition electrodes 29.

In the assembled burner assembly 10, with the sleeve 26 in place on the spiral collar 28 in draft tube 21, the

arrangement of components is such that the electrodes 39 of transformer 38 contact the lead wires 32. The lead wires 32 are spring biased so as to insure a firm electrical connection between the electrodes 39 and the lead wires 32. A conventional compression type coupling arrangement is used to connect the rear end of tube 31 with the delivery tube 36 (coupling not shown in the drawings), so that connection of the tube 31 with the delivery tube 36 can be very simply eifected when the sleeve 26 is positioned within the spiral collar 23. The transformer 38 is hinged along one side such as 4-9 (see FIG. 1) so that the entire transformer assembly 38 can be pivoted about a hinge 41 at the base or bottom of edge 40. When the transformer assembly 33 is thus raised, access to the orifice 19 is had as well as access to the tube 31 and lead wires 32. As is conventionally accomplished when it is desired to remove the sleeve 26 from engagement with. the spiral collar 28, the coupling between tube 31 and delivery tube 36 is opened or disengaged and the sleeve 26 with its associated parts is slid backward, rearwardly through the draft tube 21 and out through the aperture created when the transformer assembly 38 is pivoted on hinge 4-1. When assembling the oil burner assembly 16, a reverse procedure is followed.

In the oil burner assembly 10, the draft tube 21 is constructed of two essential parts, a first cylindrical portion 22 and a second cylindrical portion 23. The first cylindrical portion 22 is securely mounted to the blower housing 16 circumferentially about orifice 19 as shown, for example, in the sectional view of FIG. 3. The other end of the first cylindrical portion 22 is securely fastened to a mounting plate 45. The first cylindrical portion 22 and the mounting plate 45 are so constructed as to be adapted to suspend the entire assembly comprising blower 13, transformer 38, and pump assembly 34 when the mounting plate 45 is vertically positioned.

The second cylindrical portion 23 is joined to and communicates with the combustion chamber 11 at its forward end portion. In the embodiment shown, uch connection is effected by means of a flanged fastening sleeve 46 positioned at the forward end of the second cylindrical portion 23 of draft tube 21. Thus, the sleeve 46 is conveniently welded, riveted, or the like, to, respectively, the second cylindrical portion 23 and to the outside metallic shell 47 of the combustion chamber 11. The other end of the second cylindrical portion 23 is joined to a supporting plate 43. The supporting plate 48, though here shown separately, can be integrally formed with the adjoining metallic shell wall 49 of furnace 12, in which event the shell wall 49 itself functions both as the supporting plate 48 and as means for supporting the mounting plate 45, as those skilled in the art will appreciate. Obviously, the shell wall 49 should be so constructed as to be capable of supporting the mounting plate 45 and components attached thereto, as described above. However, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-5, the shell wall 49 of furnace 12 serves as the supporting means for the supporting plate 48.

The supporting plate 48 and the mounting plate 45' the inside diameter of the first cylindrical portion 22 to be substantially identical to the inside diameter of the second cylindrical portion 23 so as to avoid creation of turbulence in the air stream flowing in the draft tube 21 from orifice 19, this is not essential to the practice of this invention. Thus, for example, in the embodiment shown in the FIGS. 1-5, the first cylindrical portion 22 has a slightlylarger inside diameter than the inside diameter of the second cylindrical portion 23. Also, preferably, as in the embodiment shown in all thefigures, the first cylindrical portion 22 has an axial length very much less than the axial length of the second cylindrical portion 23. Indeed, as in the embodiments shown, the first cylindrical portion 22 can be formed as a part of the housing 16 of blower 13; in which event, the housing 16 is generally integrally formed with the first cylindrical portion 22.

Associated with supporting plate 48 are hook means. In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 15, such hook means is provided by a pair of curved arms 51 mounted in the exposed face of supporting plate 4%. These arms 51 extend laterally from the exposed face of supporting plate 48 in a direction generally away from that of the combustion chamber 11. These hooks 51 are positioned so as to be generally equal to or above the apex of the aperture through the supporting plate 43 and are positioned further so as to be generally symmetrically positioned with respect to such aperture.

Associated with said mounting plate 45 are eye means which are adapted to connect with the hook means 51 of supportingv plate 48. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-5, these eye means are provided by keyhole slots 52 which are adapted to mate with and receive the arms 51. Thus, when the forward face of plate 45 abuts against the rearward face of plate .8, the arms 51 extend through the keyhole slots 52 and position fixedly the plate 48 relative to the plate 45 in such a manner that the apertures, respectively, in each of the plates 45 and 48 are aligned. There is, consequently, produced a continuous cylindrical passageway in the draft tube 21 when the first cylindrical portion 22 is adjacentand co-axial with the second cylindrical portion 23. While in the embodiment shown, the plate is equipped with the hook means 51 and the plate 45 is equipped with the eye means 52, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the reverse could be true, that is, that the plate 45 with hook means and the plate 48 with the eye means. The basic concept here is that the supporting plate 48 be capable of being mounted face-to-face with the mounting plate 45 with the respective apertures in each plate aligned by simply bringing the mounting plate 45 into association with the supporting plate 43.

When the hook means 51 is connected with the eye means 52 and the cylindrical passageway of the draft tube 21 thereby defined, the combined weight of the blower 13, the pump assembly 34, and the transformer assembly 38 serves to compresstogether the now adjoining faces of the mounting plate 45 and the supporting plate 48. Such compression aids in providing a tight interrelationship between the plate 45 and 48. By the use of a gasket 53, the plate 45 is brought into generally sealing engagement with the plate 48 at the interface between the two plates.

In the case of the embodiment shown in FIGS. l-5,

when the plate 45 is connected with the plate 48, the

position of the sleeve 26 and its associated parts during this inserting operation is shown generally by the dotted lines in PEG. 3. Next, the tube 31 is connected with the tube 36 and the transformer assembly is pivoted on its hinge to its normally closed position as shown in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 9, there is seen the manner in which the plugs 67, 68 and 69 and their respective receptacles 70, 71 and 72 (which are conveniently mounted in an outlet box 63) are employed in the present invention. The plugs and receptacle shown are the conventional twist-lock type. These are so located as to permit the burner assembly to be rapidly disengaged from the draft tube 21 during disengagement of the oil burner from the draft tube 21, as described above. The electrical connections are as shown in FIG. 9. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the electric motor and solenoid valve 54 are connected in parallel to the relay 73. The transformer 38, described above, is also connected to relay 73. Thus, each of the plugs 67, 68 and 69 is connected to the relay 73 through respective wires 79, 8t and 81. The relay 73, in effect, controls the motor 15, solenoid valve 54 and transformer 38 in response to input signals from the thermostat 74, the stack located pyrostat 75 and the limit controls 76 (associated with fan operation). The fan 77 is operated by electric motor 78. In the usual situation 110 v.60 cycle house current is used to energize the entire system.

A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 6-8. It should be noted that the alternative embodiment of my invention shown in FIGS. 6-8 and hereinafter described corresponds in all respects not specifically hereinafter mentioned to the above-described embodiment of my invention shown in FIGS. 1-5. Parts or elements of the alternative embodiment in FlGS. 68 which correspond to like parts or elements in FIGS. 15 are denoted by the use of the. same reference characters with prime marks added thereto.

In this embodiment, there is no shell wall 49. Instead, the draft tube 21' enters directly the combustion chamber 11. In order to provide means adapted to support the supporting plate 48', there is provided a special bracket assembly herein designated in its entirety by the numeral 55. This bracket assembly employs a pair of generally upright spaced parallel legs 56, each of which has a foot 57 for reasons of stability. The respective feet 57 are arranged in a generally nonparallel configuration on the base or floor herein generally indicated by the numeral 58. The supporting plate 48 is equipped with a pair of sleeves 59 which are arranged so as to be generally parallel to one another but each is rigidly mounted to a common face of the supporting plate 48. Since the supporting plate 48' is .of generally square construction, it is convenient to position the sleeves 59 so that each one is adjacent and opposite a lateral side edge of the plate 48'. It will be observed that a pair of set screws 60 are used to fix the position of the supporting plate 48' in spaced relationship to the base or floor 58 when the sleeves 59 are positioned over respective ones of the legs 56. Thus, a single bracket assembly 55 is generally adapted for use in a variety of use situations for furnaces of various makes, models, and constructions. The feet 57 can generally be securely fastened to the base or floor 58 as by means of bolts 61. The same electrical outlet elements as were employed in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-5 can be employed here, though it is convenient to support the electrical outlet box 63' on a supp-orting column 64, which column 64, here in this embodiment of FIGS. 6-8, is conveniently held in position by means of a bracket base into which the column 64 is centrally telescopically received and which is equipped with laterally, outwardly oppositely extending flanges which are adapted to receive bolts 66 for securely positioning the bracket 65 to the floor or base 58.

This invention has been thoroughly tested and found to be completely satisfactory for the accomplishment of the above objects; and while I have shown and described above a preferred embodiment thereof in which the principles of the present invention have been incorporated, I wish it to be specifically understood that the same may be modified without departure from the scope and spirit of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

In a gun-type burner structure of the type adapted for supplying a mixture of atomised fuel oil and air to a combustion chamber in a furnace and including a blower housing and related apparatus and being adapted for lo cation in operative relation to an apertured wall of the furnace, the improvement of means for mounting said burner structure relative to said furnace wall, said improvement comprising:

(a) a generally cylindrical draft tube extending from said blower and being sectioned into inner and outer portions,

(b) the outer portion of said draft tube being secured at one end thereof to said blower housing and said inner portion of the draft tube being adapted to extend through the apertured Wall of said furnace for communication of one end of said tube inner portion with the furnace combustion chamber, a burner head slidably supported within the inner portion of said draft tube and having a fuel supply line secured to the blower housing for removal therewith,

(c) a supporting plate and a mounting plate each having a generally centrally located aperture extending therethrough,

(d) one of said plates being rigidly secured to the other end of said inner tube portion and the other of said plates being rigidly secured to the other end of said outer tube portion, said supporting plate being adapted for securement to said furnace and located adjacent said apertured furnace wall,

(e) book means and eye means located above the axis of said apertures in said supporting plate and mounting plate for releasably connecting said mounting plate to said supporting plate in face-to-face relation with the aperture of said plates in general alignment to define a continuous passage in said draft tube, and

(1) one of said means being carried by said supporting plate and the other of said means being carried by said mounting plate.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,963,340 6/34 Thorne et al l582 X 2,781,829 2/57 Zycker et a1. l582 2,900,019 8/59 Beckett 1582 JAMES W. WESTHAVER, Primary Examiner. 

